77 HOUSE OWNERS LOSE IN CONGRESS

Congress has signed off on a plan to raze homes blocking water flow to eastern Everglades National Park, and legislators and environmentalists said Friday it could end a nearly decade-long impasse.

By approving a $397 million spending bill late Thursday, the House and Senate authorized federal engineers to "immediately carry out" a plan to condemn 77 homes west of Krome Avenue in a community called the 81/2 Square Mile Area in Miami-Dade County.

The Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida water managers want to take that private land, inside the most flood-prone portion of the community, to increase water flows to 109,000 acres of wetlands annexed into Everglades National Park.

"By including this language in the omnibus [spending] bill, the logjam is broken," said U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who pushed for the authorization along with U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, and other Florida delegation members.

President Bush is expected to sign the language into law, federal officials said.

Proponents said the language should override a federal court decision in July that stopped the Corps from forcing residents to sell their land. That ruling said the Corps had to follow its 1989 directions from Congress to bypass all homes by giving them flood protection before allowing the flow of more water into the park.

Now the Corps has a clear message to pursue a compromise preferred by the park, federal and state agencies and environmentalists.

It would take 44 percent of the community's land and spare most of its homes to give the park reflooding a bigger environmental payoff.

U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fort Lauderdale, said he respected residents' reluctance to move out, but added: "I think it's the end of the line. As much as they don't want to sell their homes, it's for the greater good."

Residents of the sometimes-waterlogged community of dirt lanes, orchards, horse raising and beekeeping said they would not give up. They are planning a demonstration at noon Sunday in Miami's Little Havana, said resident Alica Pena.

"We're not going to let the government steal our land unjustly," she said.

The buyout has a condition attached to it from U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami. It requires those being bought out to be first offered other land in the same neighborhood.

"It's another action we have to take, but I don't see that as a stumbling block" said Dennis Duke, ecosystem-restoration manager for the Corps.

The congressional action does not prevent residents from finding other reasons to challenge condemnation in court, but the federal ruling likely now is moot, said Richard Warren, who represented the resident who filed the federal lawsuit.

Erin Deady, environmental counsel for Audubon of Florida, said, "I think the environmental community is relieved" the language passed.

One thing the spending bill did not contain: a $40 million down payment for oil rights at Big Cypress National Preserve, Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge and Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. Graham had objected to including the first installment in this year's spending bill because he wanted time to make sure the federal government wasn't paying too much.

Staff Writer David Fleshler contributed to this report.

Neil Santaniello can be reached at nsantaniello@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6625.